Abu Dhabi set to overtake London's number of high-earning households by 2027

The GCC is home to some of the highest-earning households in the world, according to research by Oxford Economics. While US cities dominate in terms of numbers of high-earning households, the UAE’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Jeddah appear high on the list of number of households earning $250,000 a year or more, taking the 11th to 14th spots, respectively.

London currently appears at 9th on the list, after the top eight US cities. While no Middle Eastern city has overtaken England’s capital yet, Abu Dhabi is growing its number of high net-worth households at a faster rate, with an estimated 84,000 new households earning over the $250,000 threshold to be added to the list by 2022, according to Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report.

Worth noting is that Abu Dhabi’s population is only estimated around 650,000, while London’s population is estimated to be around 8.8 million.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh accounts for 198,789 and Jeddah 130,849 households earning more than $250,000.

Dubai currently has 245,272 high-earning households, set to add another 36,432 by 2022.